Life in camera

Last year I excelled at shooting blurry pictures of Vivian. I blame the crappy camera - a Cannon point-and-shoot that used to be the state of the art for point-and-shoots about the time we were on our honeymoon. I didn't realize how much I bitched about the camera and/or how much Jo loves me, but on Christmas day, I find a nicely wrapped box with my name on it and a Cannon EOS XTi inside. Thanks, Santa Ellen.

So I turn around and point the camera at Vivian and squeeze off a few blurry ones - much more expensive blurry ones. It is too dark or the kid is moving too fast. Or is it the wind? Till I pour over the manual and try out the different modes where I get to pick the ISO and aperture and shutter speed and white balance and all other kinds of shit, I can't expect much better.

Gordon comes over on Sunday for lunch and a photo shoot. Vivian is slightly cranky, so we keep it down and Gordon only gets about four hundred shots. And he gives me a couple of pointers. Gordon's pictures are great. He's posted 23 of them in Vivian's flickr album. Click here to see them. There's one where she is looking like she's plotting something quite evil. And then there are some lovely ones with Jo. And she's trying to chew my nose off in another.

Here's one I took that came out OK. Obviously a long way to go, but I think I know which end of the camera to point where...